best pre under $2000

C

c9-2001

New member
IYO whats the best mic pre to buy under $2000

i'm gonna be using the pre with a u87ai and a blue kiwi

right now i'm liking the focusrite red8...they're 1700
i'm in the middle of building a r&b/hiphop pro tools accel HD3 system for my home studio
 
Contact Fletcher at www.mercenary.com for a
consultation.
"Best", as you know, will depend on intended application(s), etc.
You need to speak with a working pro, like him, IMHO. You might also consider two pre's for
variety.

You ain't buying an MP ART Tube. :D

Chris
 
you might wanna check out the GTQ2 by Geof Tanner(ex neve enginneer)

www.auroraaudio.net (i think thats the website)..its a lil more then 2000 BUT its 2 channels has EQ on each as well...its based on the NEVE1073, but better..well geoff feels that way anyway and he's worked for neve for 30+ so he should know what he's talkin about

i remember he quoted snoop saying how thats the flyest his voice ever sounded coming through that pre

i know when i get that kind of scratch its first on my list...
 
how do you all feel about the universal audio 6176? great pre with 1176 compression...
i've also been looking at the groove tubes Vipre..
chessparov i will be contacting fletcher b/c you aren't the first person that told me to do so...

the greeat river seems to be a very nce pre..
as for multi pres.. i'm not buying this stuff.. so i have to convince the person that is why i would need 2 preamps.. it was hard enough getting a budget of $2000.
if i got 2, i'd get something like a sebatron and a a-designs.. or something like that.. but i'm really liking the 6176
 
yes you should contact fletcher.
he will tell you that the universal audio is(and this is a quote from him)a "fuzz box".
i talked to him when i was getting a pre and he told me (along with many people on this board)to try the great river or a phoenix audio and i choose the great river and i am very pleased with it.
 
great river or vipre..

i'm after a nice open vocal sound.. the kiwi sounds so good i don't even need eq... maybe a roll off but thats about it..i want a pre that can really let me hear the dynamic range that the kiwi has..
 
Vipre is about the last pre I would use on r&B and hip-hop.

I think as a straight-ahead single-channel tube pre, the hand-built in the US A Designs Audio MP-1 at $899 is a better pre than the made-in-China Vipre at $2400.

The Great River NV is not going to give you an "open" sound. All that "breathy" "sexy" vocal sound in modern r&b and hip-hop - you won't get that out of an NV.

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions
 
Dot said:
Vipre is about the last pre I would use on r&B and hip-hop.

I think as a straight-ahead single-channel tube pre, the hand-built in the US A Designs Audio MP-1 at $899 is a better pre than the made-in-China Vipre at $2400.

The Great River NV is not going to give you an "open" sound. All that "breathy" "sexy" vocal sound in modern r&b and hip-hop - you won't get that out of an NV.

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions
Click to expand...

a hip hop engineer(does it for a living mixed commercially successful lps) told me the neve and the neve clones are GREAT for hip hop vocals...
 
Neve can work in a studio with a nice selection of mic pres. c9 is looking at getting one mic pre for now. Neve "clones" are not Neves. And some rap stuff, yes. R&B, no. Not if it's your one pre and you'll be tracking everything with that. A big colored Neve or 1272/1073-type clone would be a bad move for doing a lot of tracks.

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions
 
One channel or two?

One channel under $2K no EQ:

Great River 1NV

One Channel under $2K w/ EQ:

Vintech X73i with PSU
Daking pre/EQ w/ PSU
Milennia Media TD-1 (until Dec 31st anyway)

Two channels under $2K:

Any combo of two Old School Audio preamps
Great River MP-2
Great River MP-2MH
Vintech Dual 72
Chandler TG-2 w/ PSU
Millenia HV-3B
FMR RNP


Hope this helps.


Nathan Eldred
atlasproaudio.com
 
NathanEldred said:
And in return, I wouldn't recommend it. I won't discuss it on the BBS, you'll have to call me to find out why.

Nathan Eldred
atlasproaudio.com
Click to expand...

I've been using one for 10 months and can't find anything to complain about. I respect your opinion but also respectfully disagree with you on this one.

I do believe at AES these were used by Royer and ADK in their booths.
 
i actually have looked at the a-designs.. but a few pl told me it wouldn't open the kiwi the way i want.. i do more r&b than anything these days.. i need something thats gonna have a open sound for my singer to really shine...

i've heard nothing but good things about the vipre thants the reason i was looking at it, not to mention i used one with a 4060 and had a great sound...

teacher what you get if the Great River MP-2NV wouldn't cut it?
i mean if i can, i'll try to get a budget of $3000 for the preamp..i just want to be able to put out industry quality.. i'm getting an accel hd3 system, the dynamic range of the 192i/o sound so good.. not to mention the new accel cards.. the dsp power they have vs the old hd system..

what about john hardy.. someone mentioned one of these to me yesterday
 
The John Hardy M-1 is an excellent clean pre. Very musical. You can get an M-1 Personal Preamp for about $950. You can get 2 loaded M-1's for about $1650.

I think out of all the pres mentioned the two best would be the Focusrite Red 8 or the John Hardy M-1. Modern R&B - especially vocals - is generally cut with mostly cleaner pres. Which reminds me that the Langevin Dual Vocal Combo might be an excellent unit for your applications, as it's pres are clean, it comes with 2 shelf EQ's and 2 opto limiters.

Dan Richards
Digital Pro Sound
The Listening Sessions
 
Dot said:
Vipre is about the last pre I would use on r&B and hip-hop.

I think as a straight-ahead single-channel tube pre, the hand-built in the US A Designs Audio MP-1 at $899 is a better pre than the made-in-China Vipre at $2400.

The Great River NV is not going to give you an "open" sound. All that "breathy" "sexy" vocal sound in modern r&b and hip-hop - you won't get that out of an NV.
Click to expand...


Wow... I think I could disagree with you more... but it would take tranqualizers.

The "made in China Vipre" sounds fucking great to me in the applications outlined. Very solid, very full, very rich... and depending on the microphone, very airy as well.

The GR "NV" series does "airy" and "breathy" just fine... so where you're getting this stuff is kind of a mystery to me. In fact, the only thing I can think of that does "breathy" and "airy" a bit better is the FMR Audio "RNP".

In my rather limited experience... the vocal tones and stylings of "R&B" vs. "Hip-Hop" are entirely different. With 'R&B' I generally look for a rather full kind of tone with lots of depth, detail and dimension. With 'Hip-Hop' vocals I generally look for clarity/intelligibility, while things like 'air' and 'detail' take a backseat.

The bottom line is that pretty much all of the tools outlined here are going to do the job... whether or not they fit the users sense of aesthetic is another story entirely.
 
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